eRecord-Research Project Update: Building e-Infrastructure for Research

Are you looking for an opportunity to join over 50 of your colleagues to build an ever-better infrastructure for using electronic health information to support biomedical research? The eRecord-Research Project is just
such an opportunity. The project follows up on a town hall meeting
organized last year by the Clinical and Translational Science Institute
to get research community input as to how to take advantage of new
capabilities made possible by the eRecord electronic medical record
implementation project. About 75 Medical Center faculty and staff
attended and brainstormed with representatives of the eRecord Project
and the Clinical and Translational Science Institute.

The eRecord-Research Project follows
up on the town hall meeting. “Three working groups are underway now”
said Tom Fogg, eRecord-Research Project Manager. “Each is focused on a
different set of issues, namely (1) support for population-based
research; (2) privacy and recruitment; and (3) logistics and process
issues.” Each working group is co-led by a representative from the
Clinical and Translational Science Institute, a representative from the
eRecord Project, and a Medical Center faculty member.
Working group members represent many of the Medical Center’s clinical
departments and centers, and many of the offices that support
biomedical research.

“The more the merrier” said Fogg. “We would love to see every department and center represented.”

The project has as its goal to identify specific
approaches to utilizing healthcare information to improve support for
biomedical research at URMC. Recommendations will be related to
policies, procedures, workflows and system enhancements (Epic as well
as other related systems).

Each working group is now in the process of refining
its scope. The next step will be for each to do a “gap analysis” to
discover where research needs are not now being met. After that, each
team will craft preliminary recommendations, and then final
recommendations after cross-team discussions. The final step will be vet
the proposals with senior Medical Center leadership. Follow-on
projects will be commissioned to implement approved recommendations.

Watch the monthly Stories newsletter from the Clinical and Translational Science Institute for project updates.